The places are set for the 12 visitors at this year's men's lacrosse NCAA National Tournament. Four squads will be getting a bye to the quarterfinals while the other eight teams will be playing in the first round.
The Tigers, seeded fourth, were the final team to receive a bye, and will be playing the winner of the Georgetown-Manhattan matchup. The Hoyas are in the tournament after receiving one of the few at-large bids, while the Jaspers are in as a result of winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship. Georgetown should easily win this match and advance to play the Tigers May 18.
Another one of the first-round matchups involves the other team from the Ivy League in the tournament — Cornell. Some were surprised when Cornell qualified for the tournament. The Big Red will be playing Stony Brook, the automatic qualifier from the America East conference. This is another game that should be an easy win for the higher-seeded team.
The other two first-round matches might be interesting, though the difference between the top eight teams and the bottom four is large. Seventh-seeded Duke will be playing Patriot League AQ Hobart in one of the matchups. Eighth-seeded Massachusetts, which won the Eastern College Athletic Conference, will play the Great Western Lacrosse League champion, Fairfield, out of the great western state of Connecticut.
The Duke-Hobart game might be close if Hobart plays like it did in its 8-7 loss to Georgetown and if Duke plays like it did against Hofstra a week ago in losing 14-6. Otherwise, it should be all Duke.
The final first-round game is between UMass and Fairfield. UMass was the team many felt was snubbed from last year's tournament, so it is quite fitting that the Minutemen were actually the first team to qualify for this year's national tournament by winning the ECAC. Still though, this year's UMass team is not as good as last year's, and could be challenged by the Stags, whose two biggest wins were probably against Notre Dame and Brown.
For Princeton fans, the most important game of the quarterfinals will be between the Tigers and (probably) Georgetown on May 18 in Hempstead, N.Y. The opening face-off will be at 3 p.m. and should be a thriller from start to finish.
This is the second year in a row in which Princeton has been waiting in the quarterfinals for the winner of the Georgetown game in the first round. Last year, the Hoyas lost to Loyola. This year, Georgetown should beat Manhattan, setting up a matchup between Princeton and a solid team.
The Hoyas are 2-2 against top-ten teams, beating Cornell and Duke early in the season, but losing to both Syracuse and UMass late in the season. Georgetown has fared slightly better against common opponents. Although both Princeton and Georgetown are 4-1 against the common opponents of Cornell, Duke, Brown, Rutgers and Syracuse, Georgetown has a slim combined goal advantage of 60-35 compared to the Tigers' 55-40.
The three other likely matchups will pit Johns Hopkins against UMass, Syracuse against Duke, and Virginia against Cornell.
If the Minutemen meet the Blue Jays, they will face a young top-seeded squad that may not live up to its billing.
Granted, they have reason to be seeded first — they have an 11-1 record against a relatively tough schedule — but this is not necessarily JHU's year. Hopkins has outscored its opponents by an average score of 1.75 goals per game. In comparison, the Tigers, even at 8-4, have outscored their foes by an average of almost four goals per game. Hopkins' luck of winning close games will run out, and it might be in the quarterfinals against UMass.
The Syracuse-Duke game should not be close. Syracuse has maybe the most talented team in the country, although a questionable defense that can give up goals. Duke should lose because it has nobody on defense that can match up with Syracuse's Michael Powell or Josh Coffman.
The fourth quarterfinal matchup will likely pair the two coldest teams in the tournament. Cornell recently lost to Brown and was blown out by Princeton, while Virginia recently lost to Penn State by five. Nevertheless, the higher-ranked Cavaliers should pull out with the win.
The table is set.
The top four teams probably have the best chances to make it to the Final Four, at which point it is anybody's guess who the 2002 National Champion will be.
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